When are you ‘an expert’? [1]

‘Well informed with special knowledge in an area or a subject’

House Group Leader? Give teaching? Bake a wonderful chocolate cake?

Teach your children to swim?

Mmmmmmmmmmmm [2]

5,000 feet plus up Otira Slide [3][My limit that day]

My target, Mt Philistine but I am no expert and I need be helped [4]

But in one area.......... [5]

• In climbing I can claim maybe seven fairly significant climbs and in total actual climbing time that would be about 50 hours, and behind that say 1,00 hours of stamina work

• But in one other area I have in fact I ‘worked at it’ for 420,360 hours [just under 48 years...]

• And that I think might qualify me as ‘expert’

Being married....... [6]

‘MEN LEADING AT HOME’ [7]

• An area of at times intense conflict and challenge between the ‘world’

and the Christian Church• It can become an ‘avoid at all costs’ issue in some situations, yet Christian

men DO need to lead

The ‘traditional’ family... [8]

• Genesis 2 [23-24] This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be united with his wife, and they will become one flesh’

• In Scripture this one-flesh union is in a sense the crowning achievement of God’s Creation

Marriage is a Biblical Institution [9]

• The Godly Institution on which other human institutions have their foundation and reality

• We rightly call marriage ‘holy matrimony’ and we say that because it is ordained by God

• Where marriage is honoured and esteemed, cultures and churches flourish and are strong

• Men, women, children and family are blessed

‘Holy matrimony’ is under attack [10]

• Out of wedlock birth rate , 50 years ago under 5%, now over 40%

• Non marital relationship are ‘mainstreaming’• Divorce rate devastatingly high• Pre-nuptial ‘arrangements’ are saying what?• Kieran and Sue, Glen and Louise• Society has embraced culture of divorce and

the desecrated sacredness ‘holy matrimony’

And Christianity is ridiculed [11]

• Heard of annual ‘Smut for Smut’ campaign?• University of Texas, San Antonio• It is my First Amendment right.......

• ‘If religious groups can knock on our door in the morning and wake us up- we can put up a table outside of the college.......’

Auckland and its Bill Boards [12]

• ‘Poor Joseph, God is a hard act to follow.......• Outside of a church? [Imagine a Mosque?]• And what do we do? MAINLY NOTHING

• But we CAN do something to uphold our God ordained ‘holy matrimony’ right here in the Lamb of God Christian Community TODAY

Lamb of God and Family Life [13]

• FACT: Our community life supports the family, and the family supports the community

• FACT: Family life is of paramount importance in the life of the Lamb of God

• But some marriages run without good Biblical order and with little differentiation of roles

• This is an area we need embrace and seek to strengthen [not losing right order for children]

Men have responsibility at home [14]

• Husbands and wives have been made to function in complementary ways

• When we talk about leadership [or headship] we don’t mean it’s a matter of “giving and taking orders” but rather of different roles working well together

• This model of good order reflects Christ and the Church relationship in Ephesians 5 [22-23]

Ephesians 5 [22-25] [15]

• Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

• Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Men- do NOT be passive at home [16]

• Bible teaches: equal, different, but complementary• We are all created equal in God’s image [Gen 1:27]• Men and women are one in Christ [Gal 3:27–28]• But Men and women are also different, but these differences

are complementary• ‘Giving yourself up for her is NOT PASSIVE, it takes EFFORT,

ENERGY, CONSISTENCY [FIRMNESS] and PLENTY OF DYING TO SELF and PRAYER

So where can we start....... [17]

I have seven practical suggestions[1] Leading prayer in the home[2] Practical things in the home [3 m’s][3] Church and Lamb of God Community[4] The table as a positive place for Christ[5] Sheltering and caring for your wife[6] Making your men’s group a priority

Being at the Men’s Retreat [18]

Auckland Branch Men’s Retreat 8-9 May • The theme is ‘Be Transformed’• That means opportunity to change by being

challenged by the Lord, and supported by your brothers

• And to make the challenge even tougher the elders are bringing in a really good speaker...

LOOK OUT BROTHERS....... [19]